Semiconductor devices are typically manufactured from a semiconductor wafer. The wafer is diced to form chips or dice, which are mounted to a substrate such as a leadframe. The leadframe is then placed in a mold and a portion of the leadframe is encapsulated in a mold compound whereas another portion of the leadframe remains unencapsulated. The leadframe leads are plated with tin and cut to separate the substrate into individual semiconductor components. A drawback with this approach is that cutting the leadframe leads leaves exposed portions of the leadframe material. The exposed portions may not wet during surface mount processes leading to corrosion creep during extreme atmospheric conditions such as those within an automotive engine compartment. In addition, the exposed portions of the leadframes may form unreliable solder joints.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a semiconductor component having leadframe leads with improved wetability and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor component. It would be of further advantage for the semiconductor component to be cost efficient to manufacture.